


Small Minds

by Tadpole4176



Series: Consolation Prize [4]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, Kidfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 13:03:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15886614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tadpole4176/pseuds/Tadpole4176
Summary: The events of Fragile Balance create a Jack clone too, so Danny finds himself with a big brother.





	1. Little Friends

“I can’t believe you took me to see that!”

“It was Indiana Jones – dusty rocks, chasing around getting shot at, what’s not to like?”

“Jack! He got into a fridge to avoid an atomic blast! And you can overlook that whole thing with the demented telepathic Asgard?”

“Hey, it’s a story, suspension of disbelief and all that - as long as Thor’s not complaining.”

“It’s possible he might have slightly better things to worry about.”

“What’s that Danny, I didn’t quite hear you. Does that mean you’re admitting to being wrong?”

“Maybe, no witnesses though.”

“I knew it! You enjoyed it!” Jack prodded his friend lightly on the chest. “All that ranting is just you covering for it. You enjoyed sneaking in too, didn’t you? Been missing out on the action a bit too much lately?”

Danny grinned. “Maybe a little,” he conceded. “Besides, we didn’t sneak in, we both paid.”

“Afterwards, sure,” agreed Jack easily, his teenaged body lazing back against the chair in a manner Danny couldn’t imagine Big Jack would find achievable.

It really had been fun sneaking in though, even if technically they’d paid and everything – and not even at the concessionary rate. After all, no matter what, Danny’s body was clearly too young to see the movie. Momentarily, he wondered if his body being too young would have any lasting effect on his psyche. Probably not, not from a trip to the cinema anyway given all the other stuff he kept forcing it to witness. 

“So what now?” Jack’s voice interrupted Danny’s thought process. “Usually I’d suggest we kick back with a beer, but I don’t see that happening tonight.”

Danny regarded his friend, newly downsized, wondering what to tell him. “Big Jack told me I had to learn to enjoy the kid parts.” He paused. “I think he might have been right.”

“Wohoo! Twice in one night!!” Jack mimed dunking a basketball in the hoop. “I know I was right, but you’re the guy with all the experience now.”

Danny grinned, looking down at his puny, 6 year old body sceptically. “You know that just doesn’t sound right when you look at me.” 

Jack shrugged, looking down at himself, a mere 9 years older. “What can I say? The Asgard have a lot to answer for.”

“Where’s Indiana Jones when you need him,” agreed Danny, sighing. “No, wait, what am I saying. I don’t want to be Daniel again! I tried it, I didn’t like it.”

“What do you mean, you tried it, Danny?”

“Well, not for real, but after that whole thing with Machello’s machine blowing up, I had this huge nightmare about being Daniel and missing Jack, it was terrible.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that nightmare… gave me quite a shock! And you missed me?”

“Well, not you exactly,” hedged Danny, wishing he hadn’t said so much now that Jack was looking at him like that. 

“What happened to things are no different?” protested Jack.

“You know, they are a little,” admitted Danny, “and I know exactly how you feel, but they just are. That’s why we’ve got to find other advantages.”

“Such as?”

“I’m working on it,” grinned Danny. “Why don’t you start with working out what you’re going to call yourself – Junior?”

Danny ducked, waiting for the retaliation.

“Cheek!” Playfully, Jack swatted at the younger boy. “Besides I think Teal’c would get confused.” He paused for a moment. “I think I’m just going to go with ‘J,’ it’s cooler.”

“OK, J, you want to go to the playground? Try being a kid for real?”

“Oh for crying out loud, I’m supposed to be 15!” Jack, sorry J, glared at Danny. “And cool, remember!”

“You can be cool and still play nice,” grinned Danny, holding out his hand in a gesture that looked as though it should be completely natural, and yet still didn’t quite ring true on Danny.

“Fine, fine, you know I’m a sucker for that look. You’re doing nothing for my rep though. Next time I want you to come up with something suitable for a cool teenager or I’m considering turning bullying older brother on you.”

“You know I don’t know the first thing about cool for teenagers,” pointed out Danny, dragging J out of the door behind him.

“You’re the academic. Do some research …”

As the two boys left the house, the rest of J’s reply already lost in the distance, Jack and Daniel watched silently, each of them nursing a beer. “I can’t believe he got Danny into that movie,” muttered Jack.

“I can’t believe Danny went,” countered Daniel.

“Oh, forget the proper archaeologist, Dr Jackson, you enjoyed it and you know it.”

“I…”

“I have Danny’s word as proof.”


	2. The Big Nightmare

A week or so earlier.

Danny sat up in bed, involuntary shudders still rattling through his body as he tried to escape the nightmare.

Again. 

As if he didn’t have enough nightmares knocking around already, he’d added new ones to the tally. Danny shook his head vigorously, trying to shake both the nightmare and his worries about them out. Sometimes just being 6 would be a whole lot easier. 

But he wasn’t just 6, and the nightmare was staying. In fact all of them were staying. And somehow they seemed a whole lot worse than they had when he was big.

Plus, the one he’d just had was his least favourite. The one where he got his wish and he was resized after all, and Big Daniel got small. 

The one where Jack didn’t worry about him the same way anymore.

Shuddering again, Danny silently slid out of bed. It was no good. He knew he ought to just put up with this like usual, but there was something about this one that just made him need to see Jack in person. He was sure Jack wouldn’t mind, Jack and Daniel were always telling him he needed to make the best of the kid parts.

Well, needing a hug after a nightmare was obviously a kid benefit – he rationalised. Just another bonus of not having been grown.

And somehow that just wasn’t the right way to let his mind wander, Danny grumbled at himself, his mind honing in directly on the nightmare once more.

As Jack would say – “doh!”

A light thud in the next room drew Danny’s attention away from his quandary for a moment. His heart rate rose again, was there trouble? 

Probably not, he figured, reassuring himself. Jack was an incredibly light sleeper, he’d probably just been woken up by Danny and got up to check if things were OK. 

Danny smiled. Jack was good like that.

Still, he couldn’t be certain. Carefully reaching under his pillow, he withdrew a small, day-glo yellow water pistol, fully loaded with food dye he’d found in the cupboard the day before.

Colouring slightly himself, as he held the would-be weapon before him, Danny tried to remind himself why going armed only with a water pistol was perfectly reasonable. Such as Jack wouldn’t let him use anything more dangerous. Food dye would probably sting quite a bit if aimed at the eyes too.

Opening the door as quietly as possible, Danny peered out into the hallway, looking for any signs of trouble. 

Nothing. 

Wincing as the door creaked behind him, Danny tiptoed towards Jack’s room, his heart racing both from the nightmare and from his newly discovered fear of intruders. He couldn’t help it, tonight every noise had him imagining Jack getting taken in his place again by the NID. Or revisiting that whole thing with the Unas when he finally made it offworld, that definitely wasn’t an experience he wanted to repeat. 

Of course, the chances of an Unas creeping round Jack’s house were pretty slim, which was just as well, because Danny was pretty certain even food dye wouldn’t cut it with an Unas.

Or a Goa’uld.

Or a replicator.

Danny sighed. He really needed to have less monsters in his head if he was only allowed to be armed with something as feeble as a water pistol.

Not that he was going to let anyone mess with his mind over that one, nope his brain was definitely staying put thank you very much, but maybe there was a chance Sam could build some kind of kid-safe zat gun that Jack would let him use? 

Or maybe she could provide him with something slightly more noxious to put in his water pistol at least, that shouldn’t be against the keep-Jack-sane rules.

Maybe…

A brilliant flash of light emanating from Jack’s room threw all thoughts of nightmares – reptilian or otherwise – out of Danny’s head, and he burst into the room, just in time to see an Asgard beam directed onto Jack’s bed.

Asgard?

There was no sign of a struggle, but then why would there be? Asgard just took without asking (or gave), even in the middle of the night.

He was sure Jack was fine.

And he was already gone, so there was really nothing he could do about it.

Without any further hesitation, Danny flung himself into the beam. 

And vanished.


	3. A Clone with my Worries

The morning was not going well.

Jack paused to yank his pants up, his manner giving away his increasing frustration. Why did none of them recognise him? Didn’t they realise this was just like what had happened to Danny?

Except that it wasn’t, but that was another problem.

Once more, as Daniel and Teal’c walked in, Jack’s patience decided it couldn’t handle any more and he started barking. 

“Daniel, will you tell them who I am? Please?”

“OK, love to, who’re you?”

“This young man claims he is Colonel O’Neill,” General Hammond informed him.

“But it’s a joke, right?”

“Well, I’ll leave you people to figure this one out,” announced the General, “let me know when it all makes sense again.” Sensibly, he departed, leaving SG-1 to solve their own dilemma. At least, Jack figured, it implied Hammond was reasonably convinced he wasn’t a security hazard.

Then again, he watched as Carter shook her head, not much help there. Maybe the General was just convinced Jack’d never overpower Teal’c and continue to hold his pants up.

“What’s goin’ on?” Of course, it was possible Daniel’s memory wasn’t quite working at full tilt either, Jack surmised. Still… his brains were all there, right? 

The trade mark glare didn’t seem to be working, Jack realised. Not that it worked well on Daniel normally, be he did usually at least acknowledge it and glare back. “Daniel…” Jack glared a little bit harder, hoping to make up for some of his lost stature with pure, unfiltered outrage. It apparently bounced off the unsuspecting archaeologist without so much as a glimmer of recognition. 

“Sounds like him. At least the loud, grating parts,” admitted Daniel, looking away, apparently unwilling to inform the others that he’d been out-stared by a 15 year old. 

Aha! So he had noticed after all. Jack focussed on both the two scientists again, “There, now set those big genius brains of yours running and think through this little scenario…. Jack turns up a bit younger than usual…. A little while ago a good friend of ours had some trouble with the Asgard that shrunk him a bit…. Do you guys see where I’m going with this?”

“Technically, I didn’t have trouble with them at all you know,” pointed out Daniel, “they just made an extra me.”

“Right, but since I’m not dead, I’d call it trouble,” grumbled Jack, wishing Daniel and Carter would stop acting like guppies and get their gigantic brains moving. He could already feel his own, rather disturbed, synapses pointing out that what’d happened to Danny hadn’t been reversible… 

Oh yeah, there were definitely alarms going off in his head. Although for the moment, he had bigger concerns than not needing to shave for a year or so.

Daniel glanced at Carter, then back at Jack. “Why would Thor do this? He told you he was just making Danny as a gift, why would he make a mini-you? Maybe… you sure you didn’t die?”

“Sure, in my bed, viciously attacked by bed bugs,” grunted Jack sarcastically.

“Stranger things have happened,” shrugged Daniel.

“Name but one,” put in Teal’c, who up until now had apparently been content to observe how things unfolded.

“Well, there’s the time…” began Daniel.

“Aht! So not the point right now.” Jack’s finger, despite its reduced size, still held much the same authority. “I’m here, if not quite functioning at full capacity. We can go yell at Thor about that later.”

“How come you’re so much older?” blurted out Carter, apparently not riding on the same tracks as the others.

“I think you’ll find the point was that I was so much younger, not older, Carter. I thought you were good with figures.”

“Older than Danny,” she glared, then added, “sir.”

“Ahhh… and there you come to the crux of the problem. Forgetting for the moment whatever technical wizardry Thor’s been playing with in his little Asgard shed, we can fix that later, what I want to know is, where’s Danny? You know, little blonde kid, thinks he’s grown up, likes to find trouble?”

“Well Danny’s with you,” put in Carter.

“Carter, Danny is quite clearly not with me! Where would I put him? In my pocket?” For emphasis Jack delved his right hand almost up to his elbow into the pocket of the enormous pants, his hand reappearing with nothing more than a handful of loose change. 

“Well, sir,” began Carter, apparently remembering that she was speaking to her superior officer. “The other you.”

“The one who might be dead?”

“Or just fishing,” pointed out Daniel, slightly sheepishly. “You were, he was, supposed to be taking Danny fishing for a few days.”

*********

J sat crookedly at the top of the kiddies’ slide, nonchalantly resting his head and one arm on the supports as he watched Danny playfully swinging alongside him. 

“I can’t believe I forgot I was going fishing!” J’s eyes tracked Danny as he swung past once again. “For that matter, I can’t believe I missed it again. There has to be some sort of intergalactic conspiracy going on here,” he sighed. “And now I’ve got all the leave I want and I can’t even drive us there.”

Danny grinned. “We could still go, you’re nearly old enough, we might not get stopped.” He paused. “Actually, that’s a kid advantage you might like – not going to jail.”

“As long as we’re clear you’re not driving,” snickered J, “I’ve seen your driving, and that’s when you can reach the pedals!”

Danny stuck out his tongue, giggling in a manner J would not normally have associated with Daniel. “Jack would have a fit anyway, I got arrested last time, remember?”

“I would have a fit,” put in J, “never mind Jack.”

“That doesn’t work anymore, J. You can’t go all Dad on me looking like that, you’re supposed to join in!”

His morose expression suiting his teenaged body perfectly, J looked down at himself once more, this time resisting the urge to poke himself to check he wasn’t imagining things. “Big brothers can go either way, D.”


	4. Gone

Free at last, if slightly breathless from the climb, Jack emerged from the hatch that led down to the SGC. Or up to the real world. 

And as unreal as his whole situation was just at the moment, the real world was still where he needed to be. Not sat in some lab while Carter or Fraiser tried to work out what’d happened to him. Whether he really was a clone and so on. No, he needed to find Danny.

And since the others didn’t seem to be remotely worried that he was missing, it was going to have to be up to him. 

Of course, a small voice in the back of his head insisted on reminding him, if he really was just a clone, the others could be right. Danny could be off somewhere with Big Jack, and he – little Jack, he begrudgingly admitted to himself – was just making a colossal fool of himself. But then he could live with that. It wouldn’t be the first time.

As long as Danny was OK. Jack could take care of himself. 

************

Slumping onto the river bank, exhausted, out of ideas and increasingly concerned, Jack had no more ideas where he might find his young friend. He’d tried all of Danny’s favourite haunts, from his old apartment to the local library. He’d even called Catherine and scared her out of her wits just in case he’d had some reason to call on her. And on top of that he’d spent hours second guessing himself about where he’d go on a fishing trip with Danny if he was still big and didn’t know that anything was going on. 

Nada.

He really wasn’t imagining things. Danny was gone, and it didn’t look like he’d just casually wandered off.

Worse - he really wasn’t with his older self, not unless Thor was really bad at using the Xerox and had scrambled his brains anyway.

Now all he had to do was convince the others of that fact without getting arrested by security – or whatever. Because whatever happened, apparently at 15 he didn’t have the stamina to do it alone. 

The crack of a branch behind him alerted him to an intruder.

“Danny?” 

He wasn’t really that hopeful, but the kid turning up now would be great. 

“Sorry.”

“Daniel.” Jack sighed. 

“Nice to be wanted,” quipped Daniel

Jack shrugged. “If you’re here to help.”

The look on Daniel’s face wasn’t encouraging. “Carter?” Jack turned to acknowledge his second in command. With Teal’c hovering behind her that made a full complement.

At least if he counted himself.

“How’d you find me anyway?” He looked round the concerned trio again. “You convince Hammond we should be looking for Danny?”

“A Lieutenant Colonel Beck called General Hammond and placed you in the area.” Daniel informed him, still sounding apologetic.

“A man from whom you recently bought bait said he recommended this river.” Teal’c added, without sign of remorse. 

Jack sighed. It wasn’t as though he’d been looking for the fish as such, it had just seemed easier to buy bait and try to ask questions about Danny than not. Still, he supposed the arrival of the others pretty much bore out that theory as being effective. Old Jack and Danny should’ve been found just the same way.

They weren’t.

“How’re you doing?” Carter put in.

“Well, I think I’m getting another zit, oh yeah and I’m still a kid and my own kid-come-best-friend is missing, but beyond that I’m doing just peachy. Why?” 

She looked slightly taken aback, and whilst Jack knew that if he pushed too hard Daniel or Teal’c would come to her rescue, for the moment he allowed himself a degree of satisfaction. He’d been aching to share just a little of his suddenly teen angst. “Well, Janet’s just finished going over the genetic team’s analysis of your results,” Carter continued, stumbling a little as his attitude caught her off guard. Jack wasn’t sure why, it’s not like it was unusual, he was just a bit shorter than normal. 

“How bad can it be?” Jack wasn’t at all sure he wanted to know, he was pretty certain if Carter was telling him it was pretty much always much worse than he could possibly have imagined. Then again, if it didn’t involve Danny’s dead body, then basically it was all good. 

“You’re probably not feeling the effects yet, but something is happening to your body at a cellular level. Basically your genetic structure’s growing more unstable…” 

Extinguishing the huge wave of relief that she had yet to mention Danny, Jack glared at her. She really needed to get on with it.

“… Colonel, you’re dying.”

Oh great.

He hadn’t thought of that. 

Why would Danny be fine for months on end when Jack was dying after a few days? He was really going to have words with Thor when he next saw him…

“It wasn’t Thor.” In a flash of insight, Jack’s brain finally made the connection that had been eluding them.

**********

“How did you know it wasn’t Thor?” persisted Danny, prodding J as he juggled the keys to Big Jack’s truck and a small pile of fishing rods.

“Will you cut that out!” 

“Sorry.” Danny’s grin suggested he was anything but sorry. “So? How did you know?”

“We’re in the middle of sneaking off to go fishing, whilst not informing your guardian Jack – other than in writing – I might add, are you sure this is the time for that conversation, Danny?”

“Is it ever?” Danny stuck his tongue out in a very childish manner, then sucked it back in rapidly when J turned to glare at him. “OK, OK, did you ever manage to buy any beer?”

J glared harder, slightly gratified to realise that Danny was far more susceptible to his teenaged glare than Daniel had been. “Danny…” J tried to sound stern. 

“J..”

“I might be in the process of helping you get out from underfoot for a while, but if you don’t stop I’m definitely going to turn big brother on you.”

Danny continued to grin cheekily. “Good for hiding behind when Jack starts shouting?”

“Nah.” J finally dropped the fishing rods into the back of the truck and retrieved his more typical relaxed, teenaged demeanour. “The kind of beat you up and tell on you big brother.”

“Oh, those,” Danny’s face fell, making J feel like an ass for spoiling the mood. How was he supposed to remember this titchy kid had memories of years of foster-living? 

“Danny! J!” Jack emerged from the house, clearly having been awoken by their antics. “Where do you think you’re going with my truck?”

“Fishing,” yelled back J, a nonchalant smirk on his face.

“Fishing,” repeated Danny, hopping into the passenger side of the truck. “It’s just a day trip Jack, don’t worry,” he added.

“You’re not old enough to drive,” Jack informed J triumphantly. “I can’t risk the two of you getting arrested. We’ve been down that road with Danny already, the cops will only put up with so much air force crap you know.” 

J reached into his pocket, removing a pristine licence. “While we were forging documents so that I could stay, I asked General Hammond if I could squeeze in a birthday.”

Jack’s hands moved onto his hips, and from the expression on his face J was fairly certain that most Goa’uld would have been quaking in their shiny boots by this point.

“Took my test yesterday, totally legal,” he informed Jack. Himself.

Jack lowered his voice. “You going to make sure …” he nodded in Danny’s direction “stays out of trouble?”

Equally quietly, J nodded conspiratorially, “you think I’d spend a week looking for him then leave him to get run over or fall in a lake?” Raising his voice slightly to catch Danny’s wandering attention, he added, “what are big brothers for?”

As they drove off, Jack rolled his eyes. “God help us.”


	5. Abduction Issues

Around him the SGC was a hive of activity. But then that wasn’t saying much, maybe the point was that normally Jack was part of that activity, and today he wasn’t. Somehow, somewhere along the way, with all the cloning and dying and so on, he’d been made redundant.

Now Jack had to admit, he’d been relegated to the sidelines before, was used to it even, but usually when he was in that position he was watching Carter or Daniel fix something and he was just generally keeping an eye out for them. Because, well, they wouldn’t necessarily remember – especially Daniel – and especially if whatever it was they were working on was interesting in any way involved large words that Jack didn’t have the will to pronounce. 

Today wasn’t even one of those situations. Today he was relegated to the sidelines despite the fact that really what he should be doing was leading a search and rescue. 

Something about keeping an eye on him because he was dying. As if he’d die any faster just because he was doing something. Opening his mouth to voice his latest complaint, Jack bit back his fourth verbal outburst as he realised that General Hammond had just entered the infirmary and wasn’t likely to take kindly to any of what he was about to say. Certainly Janet hadn’t been pleased about the third.

“How’re you doing, son?”

Narrowing his eyes, Jack tried to work out precisely which line to tread on this one. Hammond was a fine commanding officer, and cut him a great deal of slack should he mistakenly start ranting, but it was obvious even to Jack that being disguised as a 15 year old would make it difficult for the most forgiving General in history to handle what was rattling through Jack’s head. 

He could really use Danny, Jack sighed. The kid was so good at diplomacy.

“Son?” General Hammond touched his arm, concern filling his kindly face. 

“Frustrated, sir,” Jack finally allowed himself. “I’d like to help find Danny.”

“Now Jack, you know that we already have our best people looking into that. Major Carter is checking the computers for any trace of NID activity as we speak and we have Teal’c trying to track down any signs of where young Danny Jackson or Colonel O’Neill might have headed, not to mention posting bulletins with the police. If either of them is here to find, we will.”

“But I…”

“And Dr Jackson is already chasing his theory that your case shows marked similarities to those of a number of historical abductees. He seems quite adamant that he’s going to be able to work out which of the Asgard did this to you…”

“I…,” began Jack, until the General raised his finger, effectively ordering Jack to wait without saying a single word.

“..And perhaps in the process discover the original?”

“I could still..” Jack tried again.

“You’ve already taken your shot son,” pointed out Hammond patiently, only serving to remind Jack of his helplessness. After all, he’d already tried and failed, albeit without any kind of support. “Let the others do their jobs, while you try to conserve your strength. You’ve got to give the good doctor time to come up with some sort of miracle.”

“Sir,” Janet interrupted. “You are both well aware that without the Tok’Ra there will be no miracle forthcoming. I’m afraid this is just beyond my expertise.”

“Oh yeah, Jacob’s lovely freeze-dried deal. No thanks,” grumbled Jack. “Sir, I’ve really got to get out of here. There’s got to be something I can help with.”

General Hammond, ever sympathetic, turned back to Janet. “Dr Fraiser? Is there any reason for the young Colonel to remain here?”

“Well I would like to keep him in for observation…”

“For crying out loud! What for? If you can’t fix it, what on earth are you going to gain by keeping me cooped up here?” Jack glanced back at the General. “Other than a massive headache from me constantly whining about it, sorry sir,” he added.

“I think the young Colonel has a point, Dr Fraiser. I’d like him to accompany me out of the infirmary if he may, doctor?”

“I…” Janet was clearly in two minds. She never had liked anything medical happening without her keeping a close eye on it. “… yes sir.”

And Jack was finally free. Or at least, released from that particular prison. 

“Sir, if I could, I’d really like to help Teal’c out trying to track down Danny and the other Jack?”

“Now hold your horses, young man. I may have released you from the doctor’s clutches, but I expect you to remain right here on base.” The General caught Jack’s eye meaningfully. “Unlike the last time,” he added. “On the other hand, it seems pointless for you to just be sitting around or playing on the playstation. Why don’t you head over to Major Carter’s lab and help her co-ordinate the operation?”

Swell. 

“Yes sir.” Jack knew better than to argue, he was pushing his luck already. Still, what had he done to deserve that? Hours of Carter telling him what she was doing to help Danny and Big Jack without any action whatsoever. He was really going to have to hope that the General was planning on assigning a few airmen he could bark orders at and send off in his place. Otherwise, he might as well have gone back to his room and played games. He’d be about as good with that as he would with Carter’s hacking.

Quietly, waiting in the corridor until no one was looking, Jack banged his head against the wall. It hurt, and it didn’t really make him feel any better, but somehow it just had to be done.

***********

Content for what felt like the first time in months, although realistically could only have been a week or two because he hadn’t existed before that, J lay back in his chair listening to the sounds of the lake. It was bright and sunny, but not too hot, the kids were all at school so the only splashing in the water was the fish, and beside him, his nose buried in a book, was Danny. Safe and sound after last week’s little escapade with the Asgard.

This was the life. 

Briefly.

“I’m just going to take a look around,” Danny told him quietly, probably unsure whether he was asleep under his cap. 

“OK, wait up, I’ll come too.” Reluctant to move, J nonetheless shifted forward in his seat, adjusting his cap so that he could see the youngster. 

“It’s OK, J, you look comfy. I’m just going to take a look around, maybe buy some chocolate at the shop, I won’t leave the path or anything.” Danny’s tone was patient, but his eyebrows were raised with the forewarning of impatience. Of course, even real 6 year olds would be reasonably allowed to walk this path, provided they could swim.

Could Danny swim? Would it be something the body would remember? Big Daniel could certainly swim, but the original 6 year old living in Egypt probably hadn’t been able to. 

Too late. In the time it had taken J to consider, Danny was gone, probably well aware (and rightfully so, the older boy knew) that J was trying to think up excuses. After the trouble last week, J was having a hard time letting the kid out of his sight, something that Big, Original (got to give him his grand title) Jack – who hadn’t been around to experience this particular little episode – apparently found hilarious. 

Begrudgingly, he had to admit Jack was probably right. With conscious effort, the teenager glanced in Danny’s direction to check that he really was headed down the path, then shifted back into his chair and purposefully closed his eyes. Danny wasn’t really 6, at least not all of him, and he was quite capable of walking to the lakeside shop...

*****

J awoke as the sun started to dip behind the mountains, making him shiver slightly as his newly skinny body noted the change. Slowly, as he came round, he shifted himself to upright in his chair, moving his cap away from his eyes and taking a look around the lake in a long ingrained habit.

Why hadn’t Danny returning woken him up?

There was an easy, and obvious answer there that J knew he was consciously avoiding. Danny had to have been wandering for a couple of hours, and whilst the lake was big, J was sure he wouldn’t have wandered that far. The shop couldn’t be more than 5 minutes away.

What was he saying! This was Danny. He didn’t do it on purpose, wandering was just what he did.

With a flash of alarm that he was still telling himself was unnecessary on such a lovely day by the side of a quiet, unpopulated lake, J was fully awake and on his feet before he could even consider remembering that he was supposed to be practicing cool and teenaged. 

He took a good long look around him. Nope, no sign of the squirt. Where had he got to? Vaguely wishing for a walkie-talkie and urgently trying to remind himself that there was really and truly no cause for alarm, J headed off towards the shop. 

“Danny!” Not quite a walkie-talkie, but it would have to do.

“Danny!”

Probably the kid had got chatting to the shopkeeper over the ins and outs of whatever chocolate bar he was craving at the moment, bent the guy’s ear off and scared away the rest of the custom – if there had been any anyway.

A shadow fell over J, surprising him. He’d been so focussed on finding Danny he hadn’t even noticed the man approach, despite his size.

“Hey kid, want to keep the noise down?”

J tensed. The man didn’t sound overly threatening or angry, there was no sign of aggression, yet in these circumstances, a guy as big as this suddenly felt like a threat. Danny was missing, and there was J wetting his pants over a regular guy jumping out at him. Just because he was used to being over 6ft.

J didn’t like to think how Danny had felt after he first got downsized, it must’ve been terrifying.

Then again, Danny didn’t exactly rely on his brawn – not that he didn’t used to use it in a pinch, but he didn’t really rely on it. He relied on Jack’s instead. 

J glanced down morosely at his hands. They looked so feeble. What if this huge guy really had taken Danny? Jack was hours away, what would he do?

“Sorry man,” stuttered J, scarcely able to believe just how much this perfectly ordinary man had shaken him up. “I was looking for my brother. Have you seen him? He’s about this high,” Jack held his hand to his chest, “and blond. Talks a lot if you let him.”

Good cover, J. Don’t let them know what you’re thinking, he congratulated himself, still feeling like a complete coward even so. 

The man chuckled, easing all sense of danger out of J as his ability to read people finally caught up with him and he realised that this guy was nothing more than someone’s Dad. The sort of guy he could have seen at any little league match. “I’ll keep my eye out.”

“Thanks,” said J, unable to get much more than that out.

The giant turned back and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, kid. This is a good place, and we all keep an eye out for each other. Nothing will have happened to him here.”

See? J told himself. Cool, calm and collected. Nothing going on here to happen to Danny – that’s why Jack let us come. Once more, J began striding purposefully towards the shop, well aware that it was probably closing by now. He had to hurry if he was going to catch the owner. 

A loud splash caught his attention.

That was no fish, not unless they’d moved up to sharks.

Stopped in his tracks once more, J surveyed the lake, his heart pounding.

Slowly, from behind a nearby clump of trees, a small rowing boat with two, adult, passengers emerged, fishing rods trailing out of the stern. Seeing J they each waved cheerily to him, then strongly rowed away into deeper water.

J didn’t wave back. Instead, he resumed his march to the shop, well aware that he was running out of time. He really needed to stop jumping at shadows.

As he closed the final 100yds to the shop, a man of around his own (usual) age emerged, clearly locking up for the night. In one breath J was both relieved to have made it, and disappointed that there was no sign of the kid with him. Where on earth had he got to? Despite J’s extensive awareness of Danny’s ability to wander off, it still felt like a crushing blow. 

Jack was going to kill him if anything happened. 

Then again, mused J, he’d probably be a willing participant to soothe his own guilty conscience! Desperately hoping once more that nothing had happened, J tore his mind away from worst case scenarios and summoned the will to talk to the shopkeeper. 

“Hey!”

“Hey, kid. I’m afraid we’ve closed up for the night, shouldn’t you be heading on home anyway?”

“Well, yeah,” agreed J amicably, “I’ve got to find my kid brother first though. Have you seen him? He’s about so high,” J raised his hand to his chest, “6 years old, blonde, glasses, talks a lot…”

“Oh yeah, I saw him. Cute, bet he gives you a run for your money,” grinned the shopkeeper. “That was hours ago though, he came in gave me some sort of commentary on the origins of chocolate then shot off his own merry way.”

J rolled his eyes, that would definitely be Danny. “Was he with anyone?”

“Oh no, definitely on his own. Confident little thing too, ain’t he. I’m sure he’ll turn up just fine, didn’t seem like the type to get lost in the woods.”

Woods? He hadn’t noticed any woods! “Woods?” croaked J.

“Oh yeah, out that way, beyond the shop. Bit too attractive to a few of the youngsters when the pace out here gets too slow. Reckon we probably have to send a search party out a couple of times a year.” 

Search parties. “They always turn up OK, right?”

The shopkeeper paused a moment before responding, “Oh, yeah. All fine.”

Why did there have to be woods? J just knew next time he and Danny went anywhere it’d be with the whole of SG-1 in tow. Not that he had any problem with spending time with his old team, but there was something fun about getting away from the whole not-quite-grown-up thing, and he was sure Danny felt the same.

Worry and annoyance vied for attention for a moment as it crossed his mind that Danny might well have found trouble of his own making that could prevent them from doing this again until Danny was driving – legally, that is.

A cough interrupted his train of thought. “Well, son. If I’m not mistaken I don’t think we’ll be needing to search those woods tonight. Isn’t that your brother there?”

J turned in the direction indicated. There, bedraggled to the point where he might just have had an unscheduled dip in the lake, stood Danny, grinning proudly as though he’d accomplished something incredible.

“What happened to you?” J didn’t know whether to hug him or start screaming, so settled for a kind of non-committal concern until he knew more about the situation. 

“I…” Danny, suddenly uncharacteristically shy, glanced up at the shopkeeper.

Thankfully, the man quickly took the hint, and began to once more fumble with his keys. “Well, I’d best get going anyway, wife’ll be throwing away my dinner. Hope to see you here again soon.” 

Both boys nodded him off silently.

“Well?” prompted J impatiently, once the man was out of earshot.

“I got locked in the toilet.”

J couldn’t help it, the side of his mouth began to twitch, but gritting his teeth he nodded to Danny to continue his tale.

“You know how little kids don’t usually lock the doors? Well, I was just thinking it was because their parents didn’t trust them, or maybe because they’d panic or something, but it turns out that it’s because they won’t be able to open them again.”

J gave up, all the nervousness of the last few minutes, coupled with the sheer ridiculousness of Danny’s story, burst out of him in the form of hysterical laughter. “Didn’t you call for help?” he gasped between huge guffaws.

“It turns out that particular bathroom isn’t well used,” said Danny, all 6 year old seriousness, despite J’s outburst. 

“So what did you do?” spluttered J.

“I had to slide under the door,” grimaced Danny. “It wasn’t as easy as I’d always imagined though.”

“I can see that,” agreed J, surveying the damage to Danny’s muddy, dripping clothes as he calmed down slightly. “I’d say that Jack would never let you in his truck, but I think he’ll be more upset in the long run if I leave you behind. He’s funny like that.”

“True,” agreed Danny, just cheekily enough to remind J that he knew exactly who he was talking to.

Smiling nonetheless, just glad that he was in one piece, J took pity on his friend, slinging his arm round Danny’s shoulders as the younger boy started to shiver slightly in his damp clothes and the dwindling sunlight. “Come on, let’s make Jack go get his truck cleaned.”


	6. The Asgard's Rambo

Asgard were tougher than they looked.

Oh, sure, their ships were impressive. No one would argue that they weren’t tough with their technology, but somehow Danny had never really considered the possibility that those weedy looking bodies were actually quite robust.

He supposed thousands of years of cloning wouldn’t produce complete rubbish. 

In other words, he should’ve known that when an Asgard is taller than you are, he’s probably stronger and therefore you need a better strategy. 

Absently, Danny rubbed at the bruises on his arms from his last encounter with Loki. The one where he’d landed with Jack, taken the Asgard by surprise, and still come off worst. He shrugged, at least Loki hadn’t really worried about chasing him. In the time he’d been hiding out on the ship he was sure the Asgard could easily have found him if he wanted to – he just hadn’t bothered. So he wasn’t a threat, that suited Danny just fine. Although he did have a nasty feeling that if this went wrong, Loki might revise his theory. 

Nothing like a little pressure, Danny reminded himself, regarding his reflection in one of the ship’s gleaming walls. He hadn’t been able to get hold of any of the Asgard’s weapons, they were all automatically protected, but it’d been incredible what he had found. Carefully placed in his right pocket for easy access, lay his water pistol, almost full of food dye and topped up with just a small amount of water from the scary Asgard food station he’d discovered.

He shuddered. He really didn’t want to think about that.

Nonetheless, it had provided some excellent ammunition. In particular 3 or 4 of the especially revolting yellow pieces, mixed with a little water, made a fantastically sticky paste – so good it had nearly welded two of Danny’s fingers together. 

He studied his reflection again, slowly flexing his hand where the yellow substance had glued itself to him. Despite the inconvenience, it had been a great discovery. As the paste had solidified it had gone hard, hard enough that he’d trapped his fingers in a door and barely felt it. So certainly worth going back for, Danny grinned as he tapped his chest, watching his hand in the mirror and imagining Jack’s reaction to his homemade body armour. He thought it looked pretty good too – not too heavy, except if you ate it, and certainly strong enough to protect him from the sort of blows he’d received last time he’d come up against the Asgard. It was only a shame that it wasn’t a slightly less conspicuous colour, but then the green stuff hadn’t worked at all.

Wiping his palms against the chest plate, then briefly panicking that the moisture from his hands would somehow destroy his creation, Danny nervously ran through a final check of his weapons.

Water pistol. Check.

Water pistol ammo. Check – at least, as much as it would hold, he hadn’t found a bucket. 

Armour. Check.

Funny little mouse shaped controller things for throwing. Check - he’d actually discovered that they made quite a good puff of smoke when they smashed, so even a miss could confuse Loki with any luck. Danny was quite pleased with those. Although Sam was going to kill him if he didn’t manage to go home with at least one for her to play with. 

Assorted lumps of sticky food. Check (more missiles).

Feather. Check. Well – he’d had it in his pocket to show Jack, and he figured if the worst came to the worst he could always find out if the Asgard were ticklish.

He was ready. Danny swallowed, then marched purposefully towards the control room. Time to save Jack.

*******

The room appeared deserted. Jack still hovered suspended over the floor by the weird looking machine above him, and 4 green orbs continually seemed to buzz around him, but since they hadn’t reacted to the door, Danny didn’t think they were likely to attack. There was no sign of Loki.

Danny hurried to Jack, wondering why he’d taken so long to come back for his friend if it was going to be this easy, they could’ve been back home the instant Loki left the room. 

“Ah, young human. I wondered when you might return.”

Danny jumped as a voice sounded from behind him. Right behind him. He spun round, his right hand already hovering over his water pistol. 

“I guess you didn’t need to look for me,” he gasped, trying not to let the fear in his voice show. Granted, Loki hadn’t exactly gone out of his way to harm him, and he’d never met a bad Asgard, but he had bruises to prove that Loki wasn’t exactly Thor either – and he’d kidnapped Jack! 

Then again, Thor did that sometimes too.

“No, I thought perhaps the best way to track a young human was to wait,” agreed Loki amicably. “You are remarkably patient for what I’ve seen of your species.”

“Thanks,” shrugged Danny, shuffling away from Loki as much as possible, stopping only when his back connected with a slumbering Jack. 

“You know of the Asgard,” observed Loki. “How interesting.”

“I – I’ve met Thor,” stammered Danny.

Loki turned momentarily to the machine beside him. “So I see. Interesting, the council would be most intrigued to see what Supreme Commander Thor has been up to with his friends the humans.”

“What do you mean?”

“This may even give me the leverage I need to complete my experiments,” Loki added more quietly, clearly no longer addressing Danny.

He almost fell for it. It would be so easy to take his usual route, to try to talk his way out of this. But somewhere inside him, Danny could hear the voices of Jack and Big Daniel, telling him just what he needed to do. 

He raised his water pistol, but found that even a water pistol wasn’t easy to shoot in cold blood. “Step away from the machine, Loki.”

“I will not,” replied Loki, ignoring him.

Danny fired, and missed.

Instead of hitting Loki’s sensitive eyes, his food dye struck the console beside him, apparently shorting a one of those transparent mice Loki was playing with and sending Jack tumbling to the ground. Unable to help himself, Danny turned to check that Jack was OK, just in time for Loki to reach out and fling him away then, returning to the machine, manipulate several of the Asgard control devices and send Jack away in a flash of light.

Dazed, Danny picked himself up off the floor. His homemade armour had taken the brunt of the initial landing, but it was all but ruined by it. Certainly the shielding was no good for a second round. Peeling the material away, and unfortunately taking his T-shirt with it, Danny checked his ammunition.

He was down to the assorted food and the feather, the mouse shaped control things had largely smashed already when he landed, though he supposed their usefulness would have been negligible anyway, because he’d scarcely noticed. Should he fight, or surrender? Without knowing where Jack had gone it was an exercise in…

As he grabbed hold of a lump of particularly smelly, sticky food, Danny realised that Jack had not merely disappeared. He’d been replaced. By himself. 

Danny didn’t even need to hear Little Jack speak to know it was him, he just knew, and as Loki moved towards Jack suddenly things became clear again. Aiming carefully, Danny threw his first lump of yellow something or other. 

The glob of food sailed through the air fully intact, finally coming to rest just on the bridge of Loki’s nose in a shot that made Danny want to cheer and had Loki reeling from the impact – at last! Thankfully, Danny wasn’t required to continue. With Loki distracted, Jack revealed a zat gun in his right hand, and with a precision Danny envied, made quick work of releasing himself from the overhead machine suspending him. 

“Danny! Thank God you’re all right!” Without a moment’s pause, the instant he was free, Jack rushed over and hugged the smaller boy, practically squeezing the air out of him, despite his own diminished stature. “I’ve been looking for you for days!”

“But you were…. Oh, I guess you’re a clone, not just shrunk?”

“Yeah,” Jack’s shoulder’s slumped slightly. “This dude doesn’t seem to know all his levers either, he got me wrong.”

“Wrong?” Danny looked up at his friend, bewildered.

“Come on, we’d better tie him up before he comes round, don’t want to be relying on any more of those little missiles of yours. Carter gave me instructions on getting the others up here, she thinks she can summon Thor too, sort this guy out.”

Danny helped as best as he could, fastening Loki to the table, but it was hard. As the adrenaline began to flow out of his system, he found himself shaking violently with fear he’d been holding in for 2 or 3 days as he hid from Loki. 

Noticing his friend hanging back a little, Jack turned and patted him on the back. “You did great, gave me just the opening I needed.”

“I was trying to save you,” pointed out Danny, unable to avoid being concerned that if Jack hadn’t come round just when he did Loki would have won, and then what? 

“Don’t worry,” grinned Jack. “You did.” Without another word he turned the controller and the figures of Carter, Big Jack, Daniel and Teal’c materialised before them. 

Half naked, cold and still trying to process what he’d seen, Danny hung back as the others greeted Thor. Somehow, he was never going to look at an Asgard the same way again.


	7. School's In

“This is the life.” J stretched his legs out before him and leaned back on his trusty deck chair. This time there was no lake before him, merely the simple lawn and few trees that made up Jack’s back garden. 

“You said that about the lake,” pointed out Danny, without looking up from his book.

“That was before you went wandering. Nope, just the simple life for me.”

Flicking over a page, Danny responded. “You’ll get bored, you know you will. I don’t know how you’re going to cope without hopping round the galaxy as it is – you do realise they’re not going to let you through the gate don’t you?”

“They might, with the right kind of persuasion – I mean, it’s not like I’d be the liability you would be,” grinned J, goading his friend.

Danny snorted, accidentally spitting all over his book, then using his arm to wipe it off. “I could go through the gate, I’d still be able to do translations and so on. I just might not be so convincing in negotiations…. Or fast enough when we’re running away. You on the other hand… don’t think you’re much of a warrior like that.”

J nodded smoothly. “It has been mentioned that I might have to take a break for a while – get my strength back, you know. Don’t worry, I’ll be back in no time. I’m pretty sure I had a growth spurt at 17.”

“You’ll be bored. What’re you going to do, just wait around?”

“Nope.”

“Go on then…” Danny gestured impatiently, hoping to get the smug grin off J’s face more than anything.

“I’m going to take a leaf out of your book, Danny. I’m going to do school.”

Danny blinked. J? School? “School? Why?” He swallowed, if J meant regular school, then that was really an area of his own past Danny would rather not dwell on. Although – he supposed J probably had a slightly better time of it. 

“You and Loki,” replied J simply. “You got beat up, he was clearly stronger than you, and you worked out a way to come back.”

“That’s strategy stuff, you’d have done that too.”

“Not with the whole crazy food armoury I wouldn’t have. I’d have been all for sneaking up and hoping for the best, I wouldn’t even have considered turning inventor.”

Danny beamed. His kid smile, the one J found he always really wanted to see. Oh sure, he knew that Danny really was Daniel, all grown up in a little body, just like him - J knew better than anyone. But it was special when Danny really let his kid side show – un-self-consciously. Meant there was hope for J too, somehow. Meant that he wasn’t going to be living a half-life indefinitely, just til he got the hang of things.

“Really?” Danny couldn’t help but admit to his delighted surprise at J’s remarks. 

“I’m thinking school might get me in the habit of thinking about things a different way,” J grinned back, and give me a few lessons in how to be a convincing teenager – because you’re a terrible tutor on that one.

Danny shrugged. “I’m not a teenager.” He paused. “What a minute, why am I not a teenager? Didn’t Thor say we were both immature because of the same marker?”

“You could ask him next time you see him,” suggested J.

“Yeah.” Danny went quiet – too quiet. He went from playful banter to deeply serious in a matter of moments, without J having a clue what he’d said. Sure, it looked as though the younger boy was just looking at his book, but in the 5 minutes J waited not a single page was turned. Whatever it was he was thinking about, J was sure it was going to be a doozy. 

“What?” J prodded, finally giving up.

“Do you think Loki will get Thor in trouble? What if me going up to that ship after Jack means that Thor gets into trouble and can’t help earth anymore? I didn’t get chance to warn him.”

He sounded so child-like that J had to think twice before answering, remind himself despite everything, that Danny really wasn’t a kid. He was a worried adult, and justifiably. Loki, if he did make use of Thor, could be a real threat. 

On the other hand, Thor was a smart guy. For a start, none of his clones fell apart after he made them. He’d fixed J in a flash (literally). Somehow it didn’t seem likely that Thor was going to fall foul of a being as flaky as Loki.

“You know, I don’t think it’s a problem Danny. If Thor could manage to become Supreme Commander, somehow I don’t think a low-life like Loki is going to give him much trouble.”

“Being high ranking doesn’t always make you better you know,” pointed out Danny, although it was clear to see the relief in his face at J’s reassurances.

“Oh no, huh? You talking military vs academic here?”

“More us vs Jack,” grinned Danny, the gleam back in his eyes. “I mean, he’s the one with the rank, not us, but it’s not us cleaning the truck.”

“You do have a point there, kid,” agreed J. “Somehow, I don’t think Thor will be the one getting all your gunk out of that space craft though, do you?”

Danny grinned back.

********

A few days later, the day that J moved out of Jack’s house and started school, Danny found himself just with Jack on the roof, gazing out of the telescope at stars he could imagine they might have flown by in Loki’s ship, even stars they might have visited via the stargate, and his mind came back to Thor and Loki. Without J there to give him an immediate answer, the outcome didn’t seem nearly as clear, and somehow it felt a bit too silly to bother Jack about it.

After all, he was a grown man, he wasn’t supposed to worry about things like that. Not this much.

But then, part of him wasn’t grown too, and these days more than a little afraid of the Asgard – not that he would ever admit it. So even if he couldn’t explain it all to Jack, he was allowed the odd hug.

Sidling up to Jack, who probably assumed Danny was cold, he slipped under his arm, and his troubles slid away on their own into the night. Danny’s mind turned simpler worries - to J. He was going to miss seeing him all the time, but he could see that it’d be impossible for J to live with himself, and Danny wasn’t going to leave Jack’s.

He was sure they’d see plenty of each other.

He just hoped the school could take it.


End file.
